On Wednesday, Linkedin became the first social media network to have released an IPO (initial public offering), raising 353 million dollars by offering 7.8 million shares at $45 per share. Linkedin opened for trading on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) at $83, which is up 84% from its IPO price. With its huge opening day “pop” and its market capitalization exceeding 4 million dollars, it is considered to be the most valuable US Internet IPO since Google in 2004.

Linkedin announced its intention to go public in January of this year. In 2010, Linkedin hit the 100 million user milestone in March and finally achieved profitability with a net income of $10.1 million and net revenues of $161.4 million by the third quarter of 2010.

LinkedIn is the first of a slew of anticipated social media IPOs set for the next year or so. Others include Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, Pandora, Kayak, Yelp, Rovio and Zillow. Renren, hailed by some as the Facebook of China, went public this month and raised $743.4 million.